Military court rejects religious angle in Marine's discharge

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military's highest court is upholding the bad-conduct discharge of a Marine who argued that the disciplinary action violated her religious beliefs.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington issued the 4-1 opinion Wednesday against former Lance Cpl. Monifa Sterling.

A special court-martial convicted Sterling in 2014 of six offenses stemming largely from her refusal to remove from her workplace at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina three hand-made signs containing the biblical quotation, "No weapon formed against me shall prosper."

Sterling argued during her trial that she was a Christian, and that she had posted the signs because co-workers were picking on her.

The court found that Sterling had not informed her supervisor of the signs' religious significance, and that the supervisor was justified in ordering her to remove them.

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